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Villages without feasts, rites without bodies. Popular religiosity in Sicily in the time of pandemic · In the winter of 2020, the progressive spread of the Covid-19 pandemic led the Italian Government to enforce strict measures to reduce and curb the infection, including a ban on public ceremonies. All over the country, all festive plans had to be suspended. Such ban on the celebration of traditional religious festivals had quite a lot of social, political and economic repercussions. Feeling an irrepressible need to “celebrate”, each community reacted to such bans by implementing varied, innovative strategies while trying to single out and emphasise what seemed to be the most qualifying and essential features of their rituals. This resulted, on one hand, in episodes of resistance/resilience, both individually and in groups, with or without the endorsement of the local clergy, and on the other side in a wide use of virtual forms of celebrations on the web and mostly on social media. |
